Breast cancer screening: cultural beliefs and diverse populations.

This article addresses the role of culture in breast cancer screening behavior among African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian American/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic/ Latina women. It reviews cultural beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge and their relative influence on women's decisions regarding health tests. The article explores how to build on these cultural values, simultaneously mediating their barrier effects. Building on cultural explanatory models of health behavior, suggestions for incorporating culture into early detection strategies for ethnically and racially diverse, underserved women are provided. In addition, the article offers four practice principles that can be used with all of the groups: inclusion and use of indigenous support; cross-application of approaches for diverse populations; honor and incorporation of culture; and attention to language, literacy, and cultural information.